Where?: Cluj-Napoca is the second biggest city in Romania, one of the few growing cities regarding its population. Cluj-Napoca is the regional center and economic powerhouse of Transylvania. Cluj-Napoca is 2015’s European Youth Capital and it aims to become European Capital of Culture in 2021. Cluj-Napoca. The city has a high number of students officially not registered in the city as inhabitants but living most of the year here in fact. Because of this the real number of inhabitants goes beyond 400,000 people, while the percentage of its young population is over 50 percent.

Cluj-Napoca is the friendliest city towards foreigners, according to Eurostat. 96% of its inhabitants feel good in this city. Cluj-Napoca ranks among the top quarter cities related to how easy it is to find a job.

Coordinating organization – Cluj-Napoca Volunteer Centre (2012-RO-19): CVCN (Cluj-Napoca Volunteer Centre) has as mission the development of volunteering as a means of involvement in solving out the problems of the local community.Since the date of legal establishment in 2004,the different services provided to the local community involve:recruiting and recommending volunteers for other NGOs,training and supervising volunteer managers,offering a set of instruments useful in working with volunteers,informing volunteers about volunteering opportunities in Cluj-Napoca,organizing volunteering campaigns and promotion events,organizing training sessions for the development of volunteers,etc. Since 2010, CVCN has started to be involved also in EVS projects.Up to this point we have hosted 60 volunteers in different projects in Cluj (mainly long-term) and we have sent 62 young romanians in projects abroad.

Host organization – The SHARE Cluj-Napoca Federation (2013-RO-89): the federation was established based on the Memorandum of Understanding for the Youth@Cluj-Napoca 2015 Initiative. The Federation has about 30 founding members, almost all of these being youth organizations.The SHARE Federation has the role of preparing and implementing the Youth@Cluj-Napoca 2015 Initiative based on the decision of the Cluj-Napoca Local Council on 22 June 2013.

What is the European Youth Capital?

The majority of the volunteers’ task and activities is linked to the European Youth Capital (title awarded to Cluj-Napoca in 2015).

The ‘European Youth Capital’ (EYC) is the title awarded to a European city for the period of one year, during which it will be given the chance to showcase, through a multi-faceted programme, its youth-related cultural, social, political and economic life and development. The EYC initiative encourages the implementation of new ideas and innovative projects, with regard to active participation of young people in society, and seeks to present a role model for the further development of youth policies in other European municipalities. The title is awarded by the European Youth Forum through a competition of programmes open for cities from 49 countries.

Cluj-Napoca will be the European Youth Capital in 2015. The year will fluctuate with several key moments, peaks completed in between with several hundred small actions, a permanent communication activity and public space presence. The European Youth Capital is not just about events but also about the city “wearing” the European Youth Capital. This is why the Capital will be present in the public space, in coffee shops, restaurants, public institutions.

Objectives: the project has as main objective the personal development of the volunteers, including growth in areas such as communication skills, deeper understanding of the concept of mutual acceptance and tolerance, time management skills, planning and organizing events, team-work related skills , creativity and innovation etc; at the same time at the community level, the project aims at promoting the active participation of youth in the community and creating a context that will offer chances for involvement for young people in Cluj.

What will the volunteers do?:

Volunteers will be working in three main departments of the SHARE Federation, in each of them having specific tasks and roles:

Location and event management: assistance in preparing and managing special locations, service and product providers, technical support for the location, assistance in logistics, assembling the location, internal design and features.

Communication and PR management: text editing, working with social media, helping in coordination of printed and other materials, assisting specific communication activities, such as press conferences;

Participants’ management and hosting: assistance in managing the staying of people arriving from other cities, countries, activities regarding the management of their movement within the city, assistance and guidance in managing accommodation for participants.

Each volunteer will work on one main field of activity and will get the recognition of the acquired practice on that specific field. In addition to these, the host and coordinating organization will offer volunteers the opportunity to develop their own personal projects, directly linked to their work in the European Youth Capital and complementary to it (starting from identified needs in the community).

Selection process:

1.CV and letter of motivation to be sent to ingrid.unmundoatuspies@gmail.com by the 10th of April 2014

2. applicants selected after the first phase will be asked to carry out an online interview (11-15 April 2014)